Cuttlefish Tip Jar

EVENTS

Major Blogger, Minor Story

The media disparity
Is mostly due to rarity—
It’s “man bites dog” for headlines, but it’s “dog bites man”, page four.
And the “major blogger” narrative?
An ill-advised comparative;
It’s missing its criteria—but truth is such a bore…

In this so-called Christian nation
The direction of migration,
So the Gallup people tell us, is away, not to, the church
If this blogger counts as major
There are bigger names, I’d wager
Going godless, but then journalists would likely have to search.

It’s much, much simpler matter
When it’s dished up on a platter
And an anecdote, pre-packaged, writes itself before your eyes
Though I’d never cast aspersions
On reporting of conversions,
They could tell the bigger story… well, they could, but no one tries.

I don’t know enough about Leah Libresco to understand her reasons for converting to Catholicism (I read them; I just don’t see Catholicism as their conclusion), and I was surprised to see the conversion of a blogger on CNN. I mean, I understand that this anecdote is an easier story, a more compelling (and yet more safe) story, and that their readers will eat it up. I’m just surprised that it was on their radar. How prominent is Leah Libresco? Am *I* a “prominent atheist blogger”? (Answer: If I convert to some form of christianity, I will in hindsight be seen as bigger than PZ. If I remain the former born-again christian, current atheist that I am, you will never see me mentioned on any national media outlet, cos I’m just a minor contributor to a minor network on an illegitimate medium [blogging died years ago, donchaknow], working in a dead format [poets abandoned verse decades ago].)

Well, good conclusions depend on good premises, as well as logic. Garbage in, garbage out. As Camels with Hammers is pointing out, some of the fault lies with the inept logic she was getting from atheists. Which is a bit of a problem, when there is no requirement in atheism that you understand all the arguments.

We all have friends who make bad decisions. Who marry the wrong woman, have the midlife crisis, get that awkward tattoo. All we can do is bite our tongues later when the urge swells to say “I told you so.” Of course, there’s still Google for that.

Since I discovered the FTB a couple of months ago, yours has been the only blog I make an effort to visit every day. So, yes, you are a MAJOR blogger (IMO, of course, so …)

Poetry that doesn’t rhyme isn’t poetry. It is simply prose with weird line breaks and frequently bizarre punctuation that often couldn’t get a “C” if the writer had presented it as an ordinary paragraph or two.

BTW, do these rhymes just pop into your head fully formed? Or is there a lot of effort behind the apparent ease?

And… it depends. Sometimes they come to me as fast as prose (I was going to say “nearly as fast”, but there are times when, because they rhyme, they come two lines at a time), but sometimes it’s like pulling teeth. If it gets too frustrating, I usually just abandon it, so most of what you read here came easily.

The fun thing is, much of the time I have no idea how a verse will end when I start it–rarely, but occasionally, I know how it will end, but not how it will start!